


friend of a friend

by brandywine421



Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 09:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21491740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brandywine421/pseuds/brandywine421
Summary: Sam took the folder and sat down.  "Why exactly are you bringing this to me?""I don't trust Feds, Curtis doesn't trust me and my friend doesn't trust superheroes - but we all agreed that you might fit our needs.  Open the folder," Karen said.He opened it and managed not to curse out loud at the fucking squid decal on the photograph.Sam knew he had no right to complain - he'd been Captain America six whole months without incident but after five years of being dust, he knew he needed to prove he deserved the shield he carried.  He was grateful for no near-apocalypse events, of course he was, and he needed the time to get to know Bucky outside of Steve's rose-tinted stories and history books.He closed it again.  "We should talk somewhere else."
Comments: 6
Kudos: 75





	1. Chapter 1

"Hi, Mr. Wilson? I'm Karen Page," the thin blonde said, offering her hand as she stood up. "Thanks so much for meeting me."

He thought he was meeting a vet to talk about public appearances to help expand local services - not _whatever_ this was. There was a thick manila folder beside her coffee and her phone was still lit up with search results for his name.

"I thought I was meeting - "

She nodded and shook his hand firmly. "Mr. Hoyle will be joining us soon, I wanted to talk to you first."

It still felt like a trap and his phone buzzed in his jeans. Bucky was his shadow and he scanned the text. _*Reporter.*_

"Reporter?" Sam asked, not taking the seat.

"Oh, not currently, I work at a law firm."

Her phone lit up with a text on the table. _*Hes onto you.*_

Sam raised an eyebrow at her when she flushed at the call out. "Right."

"What's this all about, Miss Page?" Sam asked, clocking eyes on him across the coffee shop. Now _that_ guy could be ex-military with his posture.

"My friend's missing. He's a vet, served a few tours with the Marines. So I did a little snooping around and there are - a lot of vets missing in the area," Karen said, pushing the file across the table. "I have a friend - a _specialist_ that's on the case but with the military element, he's given me permission to ask for some backup."

"Is your friend the one watching us from the corner?" Sam nodded his chin.

She waved and the man stood up, flashing a prosthetic brace but not limping. "That's Curtis, he told me to make the pitch in case you were shady," she added in a lower voice.

Curtis shook his hand with a respectful nod before glaring at Karen. "I didn't say shady. I wouldn't send you to talk to someone shady."

"I did the research, you're the one that couldn't find anyone easily accessible for me to get a consult with," Karen fired back.

He glanced down at his phone for his shadow's update. _*She has problematic friends.*_

Sam took the folder and sat down. "Why exactly are you bringing this to me?"

"I don't trust Feds, Curtis doesn't trust me and my friend doesn't trust superheroes - but we all agreed that you might fit our needs. Open the folder," Karen said.

He opened it and managed not to curse out loud at the fucking squid decal on the photograph.

Sam knew he had no right to complain - he'd been Captain America six whole months without incident but after five years of being dust, he knew he needed to prove he deserved the shield he carried.

He was grateful for no near-apocalypse events, of course he was, and he needed the time to get to know Bucky outside of Steve's rose-tinted stories and history books.

But HYDRA, **fuck**. He didn't want to fuck with HYDRA again, especially without Steve. 

He closed it again. "We should talk somewhere else."


	2. Chapter 2

  
"So who's this 'specialist' you have on the case?" Sam asked after he'd passed off the file of missing veterans and suspicious reports of military activity in civilian areas. Bucky was playing 'silent and deadly' today, per their playbook in progress. It wasn't good cop - bad cop, of course not. 

"_Specialist?_ Daredevil's not a specialist," Curt scoffed, glancing around the rooftop they've converged on per Karen's directions.

Karen flipped him off and shrugged. "Whatever, I didn't want to say 'vigilante' and he does specialize in - things."

"What about him?" Curt cocked his chin at Bucky who didn't look up from the papers but managed to look threatening anyway. Sam didn't know exactly what Curt intended - wasn't he supposed to be a therapist, too?

Wait. "Daredevil?" He knew about that guy, his mom had him ranked above Luke Cage because of something she needed three glasses of wine to talk about - a barber shop and a bar maybe?

"If it's HYDRA, do we need to know about any of his triggers?" Curt rephrased with an apologetic expression and lowered voice. "I don't know if I considered him as a factor."

"I didn't consider _Daredevil_ as a factor but here we are," Sam replied.

The vigilante appeared in all black with his face covered above his nose. "I don't think this is going to work," Daredevil said before Sam had a chance to make introductions.

"Why? You had us set all this up - " Karen turned him aside and Sam and Bucky raised matching eyebrows at Curtis who gave him a _'fuck if I know'_ eyebrow in return.

Karen walked over to Bucky after a moment with a pleading look. "I'm so sorry, but can I see your arm?"

"It doesn't come off," Sam said. That rumor followed Bucky everywhere, skin sleeve or not.

"He works with Misty Knight and she has a prosthetic arm, but he says yours is - _loud_," Karen hesitated.

Bucky glanced at Sam and tapped a button on his watch. The holographic skin disappeared and Daredevil visibly relaxed.

"That's so much better - it's like nails on a chalkboard," Daredevil said. "Do you need - _whatever_ that is - to fight?"

Bucky's face lit up in a smile that shocked the hell out of Sam. "You can hear that, too? Shuri said it was all in my head - "

"You can talk?" Curtis blurted out. 

"Sorry, Wilson, broke character too soon," Bucky apologized and turned to Curtis. "Forget I said anything, making murder-eyes at Daredevil - _go_."

Sam sighed and looked to the heavens for guidance.

Karen clucked, amused. "Okay, Daredevil, you back with the plan?"

"Right. We'll show you what we've found, hopefully it'll make more sense to you," Daredevil said.

Karen held open the door. "We've got information and the location, but - HYDRA's above our skill level, right, guys?"

Daredevil and Curt both looked away. "Right, Boss."

"Right. Nobody's going to jail or getting hurt - and Frank's getting his dog out of my house before the weekend."

Sam made a mental note to get on Karen's good side and stay there.


	3. Chapter 3

  
"Karen called me her '_specialist'_," Daredevil told Jessica Jones, strutting proudly when she turned up at the meet point the following afternoon. For a solo vigilante, Daredevil had a lot of contacts that Karen was not afraid to call in. According to her, Jones had experience with government approved supersoldiers on the loose and fuck if Sam didn't want to hear that story with a fresh bottle of vodka.

Jessica punched him in the side, taking his breath. "You're definitely special, but the world appreciates you leaving the fetish gear at home."

"My feelings are so hurt, and my side, ow," Daredevil rubbed at his ribs.

Jessica thumped him again and turned a scathing look toward Sam. "Oh. Captain America and his pet soldier, who called in the big guns?"

"Karen," Daredevil answered. "HYDRA is allegedly too big for street-level heroics to handle."

"Huh. She's smart, you need to give her a raise," Jessica acknowledged. 

Sam thought Karen was the missing vet's girlfriend but Bucky said he thought she was Daredevil's lady - if she worked for the Devil then Sam might win the wager after all. He was tired of losing bets to Bucky, he never lost the ones with Steve.

They split up to make entry into the sparsely-filled office building that was hiding a series of underground labs and Sam found himself following Daredevil while Bucky tailed Jessica in the opposite direction.

He'd run missions in the service and then with Steve and the other Avengers that had been on the roster before the snap but he'd never tagged in on a civilian op. Civilians shouldn't have ops but Daredevil was definitely not a soldier. 

He'd forgotten about the communicator in his ear until Jessica's switched on, mid-conversation with Bucky.

Apparently Bucky wasn't playing silent today and was actually answering questions from Jessica Jones that he would snarl and snap at Sam for asking. "Seventy years, give or take a few decades in ice."

"Damn, I was only mind-controlled a year or so - that's - a _lot_, buddy."

"How do you deal with it?"

"Get drunk as fuck. Talk at that asshole down there - not **to** him, gotta get him wasted enough so I can pretend like he doesn't remember the next day."

Sam glanced at Daredevil who shrugged. "Drinking alone is a warning sign, doing it together keeps our friends off our backs," he murmured. "I dare you to find an antidepressant that doesn't burn through her system. Drinking works."

"In the words of the Iron Fist, _'we're all just doing our best'_," Jessica said, joining them in the stairwell and elbowing Daredevil hard enough to make him wince. "Put your comm in, Asshole. We need to hear what you say."

Sam had caught on that Daredevil's hearing was enhanced and he was highly trained in hand to hand but he couldn't help but worry that he needed more information before running a mission with him.

"But I'm with Barnes, he can tell you whatever I say," Daredevil replied.

"He doesn't have to talk, remember? Work with us here," Jessica said.

Daredevil pulled the communicator from a hidden pocket and rolled back his mask to press into his ear. His eyes tracked across Sam's face and - _huh_.

It wasn't that he could see through the mask - it was that he couldn't see at all.

Daredevil made a face and shook his head like a dog after a rainstorm with a Do Not Want expression. He must use his hearing to navigate space. Huh.

"If it throws off your balance, just clip it so the mic's active," Sam suggested. "Just in case, yeah?"

"Okay so maybe we're dumb and should have figured that out ages ago," Jessica sighed, taking the comm and securing it to the fabric of the mask and rolling it back down for him. "How's that, Fish-Brain?"

Bucky raised an eyebrow at Sam.

"Dolphins are mammals, we're not having this argument today. Thanks," Daredevil said to Sam. "We don't do a lot of teamwork around here."

"Definitely not, I hate this guy," Jessica said. "But I was promised a fight and I could use some punching practice."


	4. Chapter 4

"Hate underground bullshit," Daredevil grumbled, helping Jessica down from the ladder by her belt loops.

She glared at him and he ignored it. "Don't manhandle me."

"You ain't seen manhandling, honey," Daredevil sneered.

"Children, please," Sam sighed. "Focus."

"Right, sorry."

"He counts a lot of heartbeats in there, at least ten are enhanced," Bucky said.

"Chemically," Daredevil picked up. "Jess has run into these kind of soldiers before, think - bath salts."

"They won't eat your brain, but they go a little - outta their head. Alpha male bullshit," Jessica said. "I was really hoping this wasn't - as far as we could tell, it was an internal program."

"HYDRA was pretty fucking internal, wouldn't be hard for them to find the research or run it from the inside," Sam sighed.

"Trade files later, get us in there now," Daredevil said. "Frank's not dosed but that doesn't mean he's not pissed off enough to make a fuss."

"I thought you were friends," Bucky said.

"Sometimes, not all the time," Jessica winked.

"You got a way to let him know you're coming?" Sam asked.

"Lights out is usually my trademark but I don't want to cut the power if it's running the air filtration system," Daredevil hesitated.

Bucky snickered. "All right, so I'll find the light switch."

"Teamwork. Go," Sam laughed at Daredevil's baffled expression.


	5. Chapter 5

Bucky and Daredevil were a match made in hell, at least in complete darkness. Sam and Jessica stood by and took out the stragglers flung or kicked their way until they had cleared the way to the holding area.

He wished Daredevil left the lights off a little bit longer when they finally flipped on and he could see the captives in barred cells.

Daredevil had the first cage opened when he dispatched Jessica to clear the exit and Sam and Bucky went to work opening the rest and keeping the conscious HYDRA agents out of 

"Frank," Daredevil said as the Punisher grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him - hard. "Stop - "

"Gun," Frank said.

"Escape first," Daredevil replied. "Focus."

"Last cage open, exit's that way - D - on a clock," Sam said as the men started to fall into line behind Frank instead of following Jessica. Bucky moved to his side. "The door holding?"

"Good enough," Bucky replied, watching the scene warily. They weren't using guns because of the Devil's delicate hearing but it wouldn't hold if the hallways they'd blocked off were opened before they got the hell out of the area.

Soldiers. Traumatized vets locked in cages. This wasn't what any of them signed on for.

Bucky pinched him with metal fingers and moved to Daredevil's side, successfully catching all the attention in the room. "Extraction. We can't call in the op until everyone's clear."

Daredevil seemed to catch on to Bucky's play. Soldiers. "Frank - can you take your guys up the stairs to the extraction point?"

"Cap's got our six," Bucky said, nodding toward him. He took a step out of the shadows, enough to flash the shield and - huh - the men started filing out of the room.

"Go, we got one of yours watching from the roof, he'll find you," Daredevil said. Sam didn't know they had anyone watching from above but he figured Curtis would want to be involved. Or else Karen had given him orders, which was equally possible.

Whatever the reasoning, it settled the Punisher enough to send him stalking out of the area without pushing the gun demand.

"Hate to leave you guys holding the bag, but - " Daredevil started.

"But that's why you called us, right? Get out of here, we'll find you later," Sam said.

"Meet us for drinks, we'll call it a debrief," Jessica said, swaggering into the space and throwing Daredevil over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. "Gotta get this asshole back to his keeper."

"I hate you," Daredevil said, but didn't fight as she carried him to the exit.

Bucky turned to Sam. "Team goals?"

"No."


	6. Chapter 6

"Tap out, one of you, we got guests!" Frank Castle called over his shoulder as he stepped aside to let them in.

Sam wasn't surprised to see Jessica and the blind guy wrestling on the carpet while Curt and Karen sipped their beers and observed. 

"Inappropriate manhandling?" Bucky asked.

"Got it in one," Frank smiled, offering his hand to shake. "Thanks for the help today."

"Are they related?" Sam laughed, watching Jessica successfully noogie the hell out of Daredevil. "Reminds me of playing with my sisters."

"Might as well be, they fight like siblings."

"She's so bad for my self-esteem, I hate her," Daredevil said, scrambling away to crouch at Karen's knee. "Help."

She pushed her hand into his hair and jostled his head. "It's your own fault for getting drunk with her before you called the all clear."

"Objection. I didn't know that was a thing I had to do," he grumbled.

"I'll take the hit on that one, totally had to get him wasted after a day full of testosterone. Come on, I need you to catch up," Jessica called, waving an unopened bottle of whiskey in Bucky's direction. "I can't challenge you to arm-wrestle until you're drunk enough to make a wager on it."

"Not the metal one," Bucky said.

"Drink, we got time for me to convince you," Jess beamed at him.

Sam crossed his fingers that she would turn out to be a better friend than influence.

"What did we learn?" Karen asked, still fucking with Daredevil's hair in his lazy crouch on the floor.

Frank answered with a defeated sigh. "I'm sorry for not asking for backup or telling anyone what I found before I got captured."

"Ha," Daredevil laughed and earned a swat for it. "No, seriously, it was his turn to play damsel in distress."

"At least he's pretending to learn a lesson, Devil's not so smart," Curt said.

"We appreciate your assistance, Mr. Wilson," Daredevil said. "Hopefully we'll never have to work together again and you can just give my card out to folks that need legal representation."

Karen passed him a business card. "Matt doesn't handle our superhero clients but our partner has a few on his call list."

"Definitely call Nelson if you get put in a regular jail, but Murdock's all right at rescuing damsels and shit," Jessica added from the other room.

Frank twitched. "Do I get to defend my honor?" 

"What honor?" Daredevil asked. There was a moment of peace before he darted out of the room with Castle on his heels.

"How do you deal with this all the time?" Curtis hissed at Karen.

"I keep them sober and separated, but desperate measures. I need that dog out of my house," Karen replied.

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Ack, I fell off the nano wagon and am currently catching my breath and trying to hydrate so I can chase down that word count. Be Gone, Muses! I have no time for you now!


End file.
